


Of Pancakes and Butterflies

by IncendiaGlacies



Series: Giddy and Teeny [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Human!Gideon, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 20:08:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17856149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiaGlacies/pseuds/IncendiaGlacies
Summary: In which Gideon copes with her grief in unhealthy ways but finds a spot of sunshine when she first meets little Martina Jackson. Hugs, tears, and most importantly, chocolate chip pancakes!





	Of Pancakes and Butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> I love Teeny so I decided to make this a series...well, I hope to anyway.

Jax stepped onto the ship carefully. In all his years as a Legend he had never heard the Waverider be so quiet. The ship lit a path to the bridge and he patted the wall, thanking her for her help. Once in the center of the beautiful vessel, he saw her.

“Oh, Gideon,” he whispered. The newly human Gideon was laid out on the floor, pillow and blanket as a makeshift bed. There were chocolate wrappers and what looked like a pill bottle scattered about. Her clothes were rumpled and there were dark circles under her eyes, her hair a complete mess. She moved restlessly in her sleep, whimpering Rip’s name every now and then. Jax stepped forward and shook her gently. She came to immediately with a gasp, eyes bugging out of her face as she took in his appearance.

“Mr. Jackson, what…”

“Jax. You can call me Jax now, Gideon,” he said kindly.

Gideon wrapped the blanket around her tightly and looked away. “What’re you doing here? How did you get on?”

“You landed in my backyard.”

She frowned. “No I didn’t. Why would I-Love!” Gideon glared at the ceiling, blaming the ship for navigating them here.

“Gideon, why are you sleeping out here? There are so many rooms-”

“It’s all got stuff in them. None of it’s mine,” she muttered. Translation: Rip’s room was filled with his things and she was scared to go in. Jax wrapped her in his arms and held her as she took shuddering breaths.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you now. You’re gonna be fine,” he whispered.

“I don’t need you,” she said coldly.

“The old girl thinks differently.”

“She just has a stupid crush on you.”

“She has good taste. Looks like you just missed out on how great I am.” He nudged her, trying to get a smile out of her. She gave on briefly before dropping her face again. Jax sighed and rubbed her back. “C’mon, you wanna get up?”

“No,” she said childishly.

Well, in that case…Jax took a seat next to her, not caring that she glared at him and the console at the same time. “Where’s Ray?”

“Gone.”

“What do you mean gone?”

“He left,” she said quietly.

The alarms blared loudly at that, followed by a series of beeping. Jax figured that meant the Waverider didn’t agree with Gideon’s sentiment. “Really?” he asked.

Gideon pulled on her hair like she always did when she was admitting defeat. “I told him to leave,” she whispered.

“Why’d you do that?”

She shrugged. “He would have left eventually.”

“Gideon-”

“Everyone always leaves.”

Jax put an arm around her and let her put her head on his shoulder. “I’m here.”

“You left, long before the rest. Got yourself a nice, normal, picture perfect life with your wife and daughter. I bet you even have a white picket fence and a porch swing.”

Jax didn’t let her caustic tone hurt him. Gideon always had biting remarks, especially when she was hurting. “I’m back now because you need help. And you know that Ray would have never wanted to leave you. He loves time travelling and you.”

“I’ve heard that before,” she said bitterly.

Jax hugged her. “You have to stop hating Rip-”

“Don’t say his name!” Gideon’s eyes welled up with tears and she turned away to wipe them away without him noticing. Jax noticed. He always did.

“He saved the timeline, the world.”

“He got himself killed. Nothing but stupid selfishness, leaving me – us, like this,” she cried. “I hate him. I hate him!”

“You don’t, you’re just hurting,” Jax said knowingly. How many times had he yelled at his own mother for his father’s inopportune death? Or cursed his father’s name for not being around? Grief hurt and twisted people in the worst ways. Jax knew best.

Gideon curled into his arms and sobbed, arms tightening around him like he was her childhood teddy bear. He comforted her the best he could, brushing back her hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead. The woman had become like a sister to him and Ray ever since she became human. Rip had once told him about how the Waverider always needed a Captain, Gideon hated it when she got lonely. How the Time Masters wouldn’t talk to her when they did routine maintenance on the ship when Rip was gone. How she had demanded stories of Rip’s family the second he got back. That’s how Jax learned to talk to Gideon when he started working on the ship. Then Ray joined in and watched and sang musicals with her as well.

And now she was all alone. Well, almost. Only the ship was her one constant companion. Her other half, as Gideon put it.

“He left me,” Gideon whispered brokenly. “In my own personal hell.”

“If Rip had any clue that you would have magically turned human, I can guarantee you that he wouldn’t have sacrificed himself.”

“But he did! Abandoned me twice, turned me off, turned my beloved into a simulator, kept secrets, finally killed himself. Stupid and selfish – I hate him!”

Only because she loved him so much.

“Okay, okay,” Jax tried to soothe her, knowing it was the furthest thing from the truth. “Have you eaten anything or have you just been living off of chocolate?” He wrinkled his nose at the wrappers strewn across the floor.

Gideon’s stomach grumbled in answer. She blushed lightly. “I fabricated something for dinner. I’m sure I did.”

“When was the last time you had a proper meal? Did some shopping and cooking?”

“When Ray left,” she said quietly. “I don’t like going off ship. Hurts to be away from her.”

Jax sympathized and rubbed her shoulder. “How long has he been gone now?”

Gideon crinkled her brow as she considered it. The lights on the console lit up. “A week.”

Jax nodded to himself and stood up, dragging Gideon up with him despite her protests. “I don’t want to hear it,” he said above her whines, “you are going to take a shower, get dressed into something nice, brush your hair and look presentable. You’re having breakfast with my family, got it? That was rhetorical, you don’t have a choice. Now go!”

Gideon opened her mouth to protest when the ship blared her alarms at her, warning her not to. The woman grumbled under her breath and headed down the hallway to the bathroom. Jax shook his head as he watched her leave and started cleaning up the mess. Wrappers went into the trash bin, blankets folded up and stacked away with the pillow, the sleeping pill bottle was almost empty so he got her a refill from the fabricator. He placed everything in Rip’s old parlour for her and did a quick account of the alcohol. He sighed with relief when he saw that it had been locked away by the ship. At least Gideon wouldn’t be repeating her old Captain’s mistakes.

Finally, Gideon returned. Her hair was still slightly damp, but nicely combed. Crumpled pajamas had been replaced with a lovely blue dress. Now if only he could get a smile to replace that scowl on her face. Jax held out his hand for her and she looked at it dubiously.

“We’ll just be inside, Gideon,” he reassured her. “Just fifty feet away, I promise.”

Biting her lip, she took his hand. As they walked out she pressed her fingers to her lips and then to the wall, giving her beloved ship a kiss. Then she walked out with Jax. She cleared her throat.

“You have a lovely home, Mr. Jackson.”

“Thank you, Gideon. Come on, there are some people I want you to meet.”

Jax smiled as Gideon’s lips parted in awe as they stepped inside. He wondered if she had ever actually seen a house, or the inside of a house before. She didn’t get off the ship much except for missions. And now with nobody on board, she probably would even less. Jax would have to call Ray so they could tag team on her and make sure she visited them, if only to get some fresh air.

Out of nowhere they had screams and laughter and then a tiny little girl came running through, wrapping herself around Jax’ legs.

“Daddy!” she squealed. Jax laughed and picked her up, kissing her cheek, just as another woman walked in, out of breath.

“Sorry! She ran off!”

“It’s okay, she was just excited to see me!” Jax kissed the other woman on the cheek. “Gideon, this is my lovely wife, Maria. And this is the light of my life, Martina, or as I like to call her, Teeny. Because she’s so teeny-tiny, yes you are!” Jax blew a raspberry into the little girl’s belly making her shriek with laughter some more. After Gideon and Maria exchanged pleasantries, Jax said, “I invited Gideon to have breakfast with us. Hope that’s okay.”

“Of course. How do you feel about pancakes?”

“I, um, I like chocolate chip?” Gideon said quietly. Maria smiled at her as Teeny giggled.

“Yummy! Me too, Mommy!” Then she stared at Gideon, taking in her face for the first time and the fact that there was a stranger in the house.

“You wanna say hi to Gideon?” Jax held his daughter out for Gideon, despite the terrified look in her eyes. “Go on,” he urged.

Carefully, Gideon took the child into her arms, doing her best to hold the girl just as she had watched Miranda and Rip hold Jonas. “Hello, I’m Gideon.”

“Gi-Gi-Giddy?” Teeny tried very, very hard. It brought a smile to Gideon’s face. An actual, true smile. It reminded her of how Jonas had tried so hard and could only call her Gigi.

“Yes, my love. Giddy,” she agreed. The little girl smiled and clapped, Her chubby cheeks dimpled and her little pearly whites were on display. Then she grabbed a fistful of Gideon’s hair and tugged. “Ow!”

“Teeny! We do not pull our friends’ hair,” Jax scolded her.

“No, it’s fine. She’s just curious, that’s all. Nothing wrong with natural born curiosity,” Gideon assured him. It was one of the qualities the Time Masters had looked for in possible candidates for Captains. An insatiable curiosity and thirst for adventure. Both were something Rip had in spades. The best Captain Gideon and her Love had ever had.

“It’s not okay. She knows better than that. You’re three now, Teeny. You have to be nice. What do you say?”

“I’m sowwy.”

She even said ‘sorry’ just as Jonas had whenever he had gotten peanut butter over her wires. And just like then, Gideon found herself melting for the little girl. This time though, it was accompanied by this strange warming of her heart, and an irrational need to smile at everything the little girl did or said. It was the lightest she had felt in a long time.

“Apology accepted, little one. What were you doing before your Daddy and I came in?”

“Colouwing.”

“Oh? May I see your picture?”

Teeny nodded enthusiastically and pushed herself away from Gideon who quickly became very confused. What had she done wrong that the little girl wanted away from her already?

“She likes to walk everywhere,” Jax said quietly. “Makes her feel more grown up.”

“Oh,” Gideon replied in realization. She loosened her hold on the child so Teeny could slide down. Then she held her hand out. Teeny took her hand to lead her to the dining room where her colouring book was. The little girl had to take two steps for each of Gideon’s, no matter how slow the older woman tried to go.

“Oh my, this is very, very pretty. I love your use of red and blue over here,” Gideon complimented on the picture. A simple vase of flowers, the vase was coloured a shocking orange, the petals of the one of the flowers was blue, and Teeny had scribbled in a red happy face on the face of the vase. “You are a true artist,” she said sincerely. Creativity was another trait looked for in Captains.

Teeny giggled happily and held out a pink crayon. “You wanna twy?”

A memory surfaced in her mind of Miranda giving Jonas a crayon to sign the so-called marriage certificate, authenticating his play wedding to Gideon. He had written the J backwards, she remembered that. Gideon swallowed and worked past the memory. “I would love to,” she said softly.

Teeny watched, somewhat hypnotized, as Gideon coloured in another flower petal, completely inside of the lines. Meanwhile, she focused on colouring the rest of the page a light blue.

“What’s that?” Gideon asked.

“’S the sky, silly Giddy!” She laughed at Gideon and pointed out the clouds she had been drawing in with her black crayon.

“Oh yes, how silly of me. I see it now. Shall we add a butterfly to your beautiful drawing?”

“I don’t know how.” Teeny pouted and crossed her arms.

“Want me to teach you?” Captains had to be willing to listen to reason and logic and advice.

Teeny nodded eagerly, picking up the red crayon the same time Gideon picked up the purple one. Step by step, she taught Teeny how to draw a butterfly, making sure to compliment and correct her as they worked.

“Oh, it’s beautiful, Teeny!” Gideon cooed.

“Mommy, Mommy, wanna see?”

Gideon looked up and saw Jax and his wife entering with plates laden with pancakes. As Maria gushed over Teeny’s drawing, Jax placed the maple syrup in the middle of the table.

“Well, let’s dig in, shall we?” he said as Teeny cheered.

“Yummy, Mommy!” Teeny exclaimed, her face smeared with the sticky syrup.

“Yes, they are quite delicious,” Gideon complimented as she tried her own pancakes. As they ate, Teeny sat next to Gideon and prattled on about everything she enjoyed doing. Going to the park, swinging, drawing, playing hide-and-seek, and most importantly, tea parties.

“And do we have to dress up for these tea parties?” Gideon asked, amazed by the little girl’s imagination.

Teeny nodded. “Mmhmm. It’s vewy, vewy important.”

“May I come to one of your tea parties?” Gideon found herself asking. She looked up at Jax in apology for not asking his permission first but he simply grinned at her. And Gideon found herself smiling softly back.

“Yes, yes, Giddy!” Teeny cheered. She pulled herself into Gideon’s lap and hugged the woman, being careful not to pull on her hair this time. Gideon laughed and held Teeny tightly, kissing her cheek as Jax had before.

“I am honoured to be invited. Thank you, Teeny,” she whispered.

Eventually, not even the little girl’s adorable smile could soothe Gideon’s need to be with her other half and she excused herself from the Jackson’s house. Jax walked her back to the ship after Teeny made her promise to come back.

“I hope you had-”

“Thank you for-”

Both of them stopped talking and gestured for the other to begin. Finally, Gideon said, “Thank you for inviting me to breakfast. I think – I think it was good for me.”

Jax hugged her. “It was. I hoped you’d have some fun with Teeny. Ray always thought you’d like her.” And Rip had told him about how much Gideon had doted on Jonas.

“I did. Thank you.”

“Now, you can’t just run away again. You made a promise to my little girl and you had better keep it. Or else there’s no time or place you can hide from me!”

“Yes, Sir.” Gideon gave him a mock salute but a sincere smile.

“You don’t need to do that anymore. You’re Captain now, Ray always said so.”

“Doctor Palmer was always very kind.” Gideon looked at the ground silently. “That was my first time getting to hold a child. Thank you.”

Jax blinked, then realized she had been an AI when Jonas had been born or Rip would have let her. “You’re welcome. You’re great with her.”

“I am very glad she likes me and she…she treats me like a person,” Gideon whispered.

“That’s because you are.”

“She doesn’t know about me, does she?”

Jax shook her head. “She knows that I travelled in time. I tell her bedtime stories about it, but I’m sure there’ll come a day when she doesn’t believe me anymore.”

Not if Gideon had anything to do with it. Instead of voicing this, she nodded and thanked him again.

“Come back soon, okay? We worry about you,” Jax whispered as he hugged her.

“I’ll try my best,” Gideon said, and found herself really meaning it. She watched from the window as Jax walked back into the house and was met with his loving family. A pang went through her heart as Gideon realized that Rip had had that. That was the reason he was so willing to give up his life. She swallowed her sadness, not wanting to wallow right now and patted the wall. The Waverider took off into the timestream.

“That was very devious what you did,” Gideon lectured as she made her way back to the bridge. It seemed Jax had cleaned up the place for her. She owed the man a lot. “It might not have worked out.” The lights flashed at her, sounding the ship’s disagreement. Gideon ran her hand lovingly over the console. “Thank you, for what you did, and everything you do for me. I love you so much and – and I will try to be better. For you.” A single flash of light in her acceptance.

Gideon smiled and took a seat in front of the console. “Thank you. Would you please open a communication line? You know who I need to talk to.” She had amends to make.

The screen flickered to life, showing his handsome, confused face that quickly brightened into happiness. “Gideon, hi! How are you? Are you okay? Do you need anything? Because I can-”

Gideon laughed softly, enjoying the feel of a smile stretched across her face. She smiled at him.

“Hi Ray…”


End file.
